State Dept. accuses Russia of 'PR stunt' in election-monitoring flap

The State Department on Thursday accused Moscow of a “PR stunt” after reports emerged that the U.S. had rejected Russia's request to send delegates to “monitor” November's polls — the latest twist in a bizarre election season sullied by accusations of Russian meddling.

Kremlin-backed news outlets such as RT, sometimes citing other media, reported Thursday that representatives of Russia's Central Elections Commission had talked to the State Department about sending a delegation to watch the U.S. polls on Nov. 8.

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Although allowing in foreign observers to watch Americans vote is nothing new, "U.S. officials categorically rejected even the possibility of such a mission" by Russia, RT reported.

The U.S. is "suffering from some sort of persecutory delusion," a Russian lawmaker was quoted as saying. "They imagine that Russians want to distort their elections and somehow intend to do it while acting as observers."

In a statement to POLITICO, State Department spokesman Mark Toner flatly denied his agency played a role.

"Any suggestion that we rejected Russia's proposal to observe our elections is false," Toner said, noting that allowing foreign observers is up to individual states. Russian officials could have participated in an observer delegation through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Toner added, but declined to do so, making their new complaints "nothing more than a PR stunt."

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the Russian media accounts suggested officials in Moscow were conflating a number of issues involved in election monitoring in the United States, including who is in charge.

Russia has played an outsized role in this U.S. election season, with Republican nominee Donald Trump speaking fondly of Russian President Vladimir Putin and inviting the Kremlin to hack Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in an attempt to recover deleted emails from her controversial private server.

During Wednesday night's debate Clinton dared Trump to admit that Russia was hacking U.S. campaign bodies and called him Putin’s “puppet.” But Trump refused to blame Russia and would not commit to accepting the results of the Nov. 8 elections, claiming that the process has been "rigged" against him.

In a sweeping statement earlier this month, U.S. officials accused Russia of trying to meddle in the U.S. election by hacking into Democratic targets, such as the Democratic National Committee. The White House later pledged that there would be a “proportional” response to the hack, without providing details.

The latest flap over the prospect of Russia monitoring U.S. electionselevates the tensions even more.

The United States has long welcomed foreigners, including lawmakers and others, to "observe" the American elections. It typically does so as part of its role in the OSCE, a 57-member body that tackles a range of topics, from arms control to the economy, through a consensus-based but not legally binding process.

In March, the U.S. sent an invitation to the OSCE division that oversees election observers, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, for this year's presidential election. The members of the ODIHR are, in theory, committed to promoting free and fair elections, and the foreign observer missions are designed to be largely educational.

The ODIHR sends observers drawn from the ranks of the participating countries. But even then, the observers cannot access all U.S. poll stations because, for the most part, control of elections falls to the states. At least 12 states either directly or indirectly barforeign election observers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

According to RT, whose coverage of the 2016 race has been highly pro-Trump, U.S. officials who rejected Russia's request to send "monitors" suggested that Moscow instead send its representatives through the ODIHR.

Russia is a member of the broader OSCE. However, according to RT, a Russian official said the country would not go along with the reported U.S. recommendation to rely on the ODIHR mission "because participating in it would involve additional restrictions against visiting polling stations in some U.S. states." The official also is quoted as saying Russia will conduct “remote” monitoring of the election by analyzing media and other open-source reports.

Russian officials are also quoted as complaining that their wish to visit the U.S. for the election was rejected with “very harsh formulas” by officials in some states, including Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. "In Texas, they even threatened to hold monitors who appear at ballot stations criminally responsible," the Russian sources are quoted as saying.

Those threestates are among the 12 that the NCSL lists as not allowing foreign election observers, but Russian officials seemed unaware of that, based on the RT report. And the states' exact approaches may not all be set in stone.

For instance, Louisiana officials shared with POLITICO a copy of the letter the state Secretary of State Tom Schedler sent to the Russian consul general who requested that an official from the consulate in Houston be allowed to visit a precinct with the "goal of studying the U.S. experience" on Nov. 8.

Schedler, in genial tones, denied the request, but said it was because his staff was overwhelmed in trying to deal with the recent flooding in the Baton Rouge area. The flooding had not only affected his staff on a personal level, it also meant reorganizing polling stations and other work, Schedler wrote. "I ask that you please contact me in 2020 if you still are desirous to visit a precinct in a presidential election," the Louisiana official added.

The denial letter from Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos is far more curt, and, as the Russian officials claim, does indeed note that anyone not authorized by law to be in a polling station during voting would be "committing a class C misdemeanor crime." But, according to a copy of the missive shared with POLITICO, Cascos also offers to have an aide talk to Russian representatives about the election process.

On Thursday, researchers announced they had confirmed that the Gmail account of John Podesta, chairman of Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, had been hacked by the same Russian intelligence-linked operatives alleged to have earlier breached the servers of the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Russia has for years been believed to try to influence elections in Europe, particularly in eastern regions that were once under Soviet domination. Moscow is thought to financially support far-right parties and use its hacking prowess to meddle with European states.

Putin and other Russian leaders have dismissed the notion that they are messing with America's presidential race, but many analysts and former U.S. officials weren't buying it on Thursday.

"Russia is a member of the OSCE," noted Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia. "Those from Russia wishing to observe the U.S. elections should apply to join the OSCE delegation."

Evelyn Farkas, a former top Pentagon official, was more blunt.

"Russia has forfeited the role of independent observer," she said. "How could they possibly be trusted to give an objective review of whether our elections are free and fair?"